Are there other options

Filed in archive Intelligence on October 7, 2004

The debate on the affect of offshoring on entrepreneuership continues to rage.

On the one hand, some feel that offshoring is an easy way out, that is especially attractive to CEO's that are most interested in short term fluctuations in stock price.

To them, the lure of fast reduction in the cost of operating expenses is very attractive.

Strategic Management @ Emory is proposing that leaders consider alternatives to the offshoring pressure. For instance:

Some business leaders have applied creative solutions versus moving operations abroad. When computer support jobs were going overseas due to the cost savings, business leader and Goizueta EMBA graduate W. Cliff Oxford says he took a different path at the company he founded. In 2002, he regrouped and shifted efforts at STI Knowledge, an enterprise-support solutions company. "I had computer support people and I retrained them to also upsell to the customer after they provided support. They understood the product better than anyone. I moved a cost center into a profit center." (Oxford sold his remaining interest in STI Knowledge in December.)